Swimmer Emily Seebohm arrives for training in Cairns1:05

Swimmer Emily Seebohm arrives for training in Cairns following her recent break-up with Mitch Larkin.

July 25th 2018

4 months ago

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Emily Seebohm and Mitch Larkin at the Doomben RacecourseSource:Supplied

AUSSIE swimmer Mitch Larkin has opened up on his public split with Emily Seebohm.

The 25-year-old star’s relationship with the Olympic gold medallist was a hot topic of conversation in June after rumours of an affair were plastered across front pages around the country.

Speaking for the first time since splitting with Seebohm, Larkin made moves to smooth over the ugly situation. He revealed “things weren’t good” in their relationship at the time but stressed he “absolutely did not cheat on her”.

“I said ‘this isn’t good, this isn’t what a relationship should be, it’s quite draining’. I came back from a training camp in Thailand and ended it. It was on June 9,” Larkin told the Courier Mail.

Cheating accusations flooded the media after reports Seebohm discovered messages from another girl on her partner’s phone. Larkin said Seebohm, who announced their split on Instagram a day later, “jumped to conclusions” after seeing the text messages, which he says came from training partner Abbey Harkin.

“She was really emotional at the time and whether she had seen the conversation (on the phone) and jumped to conclusions,” he said.

“I said to her ‘I’ve never cheated on you … how do you think it’s physically possible for me to do it, we live together, you see me all the time. I don’t know where this was coming from.’”

“She knew me quite well and could see this whole situation was tearing me apart and it was nice to see that she cared enough to check in,” he said.

“(But) there was certainly no physical relationship at all, which has been reported many times.

“My coach is very adamant that there’s no relationships within the squad for a number of reasons, because it just makes things difficult, and the punishment is both people get kicked out,”

Larkin said he couldn’t comprehend allegations of him cheating against Seebohm as his relationship breakdown became front page news.

“I can’t even comprehend that,” Larkin says. “I’d go to bed positive, thinking I’d got through that day and then something else would come at me, another story saying the same thing … it was an emotional rollercoaster.

“She knew me quite well and could see this whole situation was tearing me apart and it was nice to see that she cared enough to check in.”